The Dragon’s Realm
Chapter 1
Anthony
Know what sucks worse than dying? Dying twice. Both times, totally not my fault.
I blame the first time on that ginormous winged thing Arietta called a netherbeast, but the second time from a unicorn? Seriously, I thought they were supposed to be all rainbows and prancing, not murdering monsters.
So, one minute I’m just standing there, trying to get the demon out of my head. Getting ready to meet my demise, I could almost hear Mom in my head. “Anthony, if you ever see a brilliant light, head toward it. God will be there waiting for you.” I don’t know if she was kidding or forewarning me.
Well, that not so friendly unicorn shot a laser beam out of its horn and BAM! Dying wasn’t quite like Mom described it. No white light. No God or angels to greet me.
I was just lying there on my back, staring up through the branches of a tree. Bright sunlight speckled through yellow and red leaves like the ones about to drop during the fall.
So, heaven’s got trees. Cool. I like trees. I’ve grown up with them all my life living on the edge of a forest. As a little boy, I remember something about being lost in the woods until some hikers found me and took me to my parents. I was so young I might be remembering it wrong.
The ground under me was soft and damp and seeped through my jeans. Yuck, the chill running up my legs was super uncomfortable. I still had my backpack, which pressed into my spine, and my hand gripped my staff. At least I still had those. I tried to sit. My head throbbed and my ears had a slight ringing in them. I rubbed my eyes and stared around me. Sitting cross-legged on the ground, I wiggled my finger in my ear, trying to get rid of the noise there. It was like that time I helped dad in his woodshop, and the sound of the skill saw buzzed in my head for a moment after he turned it off.
A meadow lark sang in the branches overhead. They have this melody unlike any other bird. With a soft whistle, I copied the bird’s tune and waited. She trilled back to me.
They say animals in heaven can talk. “Hey pretty bird, where should I go?” She flapped off the branch, disappearing over the trees. Apparently, they were wrong.
A crunch in the underbrush startled me. Barely breathing, I tensed my shoulders. A cloud passed over the sun, dimming the forest where I sat, and the dampness of my jeans grew colder. Somewhere near, a wolf howled, long and high pitched. Since I was already dead, and nothing could harm me, I shouldn’t be scared, right?
I stood and took a few steps away from the tree. A streak of gray whizzed past me on the right, and something growled behind me. I spun around.
A wolf’s teeth snapped.
I remembered church sermons. The lamb and the lion shall lie down together. I swallowed the lump in my throat. “You can’t kill me. I’m already dead.” A child shall play in the cockatrice’s den. Whatever a cockatrice was? Where did the Bible mention wolves? If large cats and baby sheep could hang out together, surely an oversized dog, man’s best friend, wouldn’t hurt me, right?
I clutched my staff trying to remember what abilities Miri had given it. Shockwaves, fire blasts, and levitation. I thumped the end on the ground. The energy should have sent the wolf flying back, but he kept advancing toward me.
With my staff aimed, I pressed the switch. Again, nothing happened. Even the levitation wasn’t working.
Backing up, a stick snapped under my foot. Dogs love sticks, right? I inched to a crouched position and wrapped my hand around the stick.
“Hey, wolfie . . . here ya go.” I flung it as far as I could.
His grey eyes never wavered from mine. Several smaller wolves joined the hefty male.
So maybe I wasn’t in heaven. But I hadn’t done anything that bad to deserve hell. I mean the worst things was playing those dumb pranks on Arietta and Jayme, but those were in good fun, right? I didn’t do drugs; I didn’t smoke or drink or have sex. Heck, I hadn’t even kissed a girl until yesterday. Well, except for that one back in second grade, but that one didn’t count, right?
Suddenly, another thought crossed my mind. One even more terrifying than the idea of facing the devil himself. What if I wasn’t dead?
A sharp bugling, like an elk’s mating call shot through the woods. Its sound ethereal and bounced off the trees, sending shivers up my spine. With a quick twist of their bodies, the wolves sprinted off through the forest, leaving the air around me quiet…deathly quiet.
Not wanting to get caught in the open by whatever lurked in the forest, I bolted for a tree with branches not too high up and shoved the staff into the bushes, not caring so much if it was out of sight. I jumped for the lowest limb and wrapped my legs around the trunk, trying to shimmy up. My backpack snagged on a lower limb, making it difficult to climb. Out of breath, I settled into the foliage and hopefully out of sight.
This oddly dressed guy stepped out of the trees. He looked like some kind of mountain man, only more primitive. Tattered clothing covered his body. His shirt tied at the neck and looked like something from our theater costume room, only the strings were more ragged and worn. On his feet he wore woven sandals that were made from straw or hemp maybe. His long hair was a slightly darker blond color than mine and hung in greasy strands across his shoulders. He was broad-chested and muscular. A dark beard, jagged as if he’d tried to trim it with a knife, hung a few inches from his chin. In one hand he carried a longbow, in the other a dead pheasant.
He looked up through the branches. “What’re ye doin’ up thar?” His accent was so thick, I almost couldn’t understand him. Like someone from England, but not any English I’d ever heard.
Still trying to gain my breath and still my heart, I managed to squeak out, “Wolves.”
He motioned for me to come down. “Pesky critures. Odd fer them to be out during the day.”
I slid from my perch and dropped to the ground. Maybe he could help me figure out where I was and how I could get home. “Hi, my name’s Anthony.”
He eyed me as if he’d never seen another human before. With the end of his bow, he lifted the tail of my untucked, plaid shirt and [BL1] poked at my belt buckle before running the end up my buttons. He turned me around and flicked my collar up, then jabbed at my backpack, the crinkle of my water bottle made him jump back. “What devilry be this?”
I turned around. “What?”
He pointed. “In your pack, there.”
I slipped my backpack from my shoulder and held it out to him.
He quick-stepped backward. “Aye, that.” My almost empty water bottle in the side pocket crackled when he prodded it.
I chuckled. “Wow, you have been in the forest a long time.”
He retreated a step. “Who sent ye here?”
If I told the truth, he’d think I was crazy. Unless, I was still in Terabound, then he might not think I was delusional after all.
He didn’t move. “Well?”
“Well . . .”
“Well?” This time the impatience in his voice came through loud and clear.
“Do you believe in fairies and dragons?” I asked.
He raked his hand through his hair catching the long locks and tangling them in his fingers. “Aye, though I’ve not seen any for a fortnight.” He squinted at me. “Do ye believe in them?”
“Would you think I was nuts if I did?”
“Nuts? I don’t understand. Squirrels like nuts.” He shifted the bow and brought it over his head settling it on his shoulder.
I rephrased the question. “Would you think I was crazy?”
“Ah, addled.”
I’d heard that word used to describe geniuses who got kicked out of school, thinking they were crazy. “Like Einstein’s teacher.”
“Who?” He tilted his head.
Apparently, I must still be in Terabound. “Never mind.”
He paced before me, a dead pheasant swinging against his leg, as if trying to decide something. Twice he stopped, opened his mouth to speak, but shut his lips before any words came out. At last, he halted and narrowed his eyes at me. “Did Vyana send ye?”
“Vyana?” I knew that name from somewhere—just couldn’t remember where I’d heard it before. “I don’t know anyone by that name.”
He bent to examine my tennis shoes. “What kind of magic is this?”
“Magic?” I repeated.
“Aye, magic, perhaps even devilry, or witchcraft.”
I took a deep breath. If he only knew how much magic I’d seen in the last twenty-four hours, he’d probably drop his pheasant and run screaming like a girl into the forest. I took another deep breath. “Okay, I’ve been in some really weird places lately, and you probably wouldn’t believe me if you knew.”
I spilled the whole story of how my mind had been taken over by some evil dude named Fir’inis, how my best friend had suddenly turned into an elf, not the Christmas kind, and she was now the proud owner of a dragon. A fairy had followed us into Fir’inis’s fortress, but then she’d chickened out, leaving us to defend ourselves.
I told him the last thing I remembered was the blast of energy that shot out of the unicorn’s horn. The electricity had spread like fire through my chest, and I was certain I had died—again.
The whole time I was telling the story, the guy just nodded like this was some normal, everyday tale. And why wouldn’t it be? Terabound was frankly unbelievable, unless you’d seen it with your own eyes.
When I finished, he shrugged. “That’s quite a story.”
“So do you think I’m nuts—I mean addled?”
“No.” He shifted his weight to his other foot. “It sounds like ye’ve had quite an adventure.”
Adventure? He didn’t know the half of it. “So, I’m not crazy to believe in fairies and dragons and stuff?”
He glared at me. “I’d think ye were addled if ye didn’t believe in them.”
I drew my eyebrows together. “I must still be in Terabound.”
His face puckered into puzzlement. “Tera-what?”
“You know, where the dragons and fairies and netherbeasts live.”
“Terabound.” The guy repeated. “Terra meaning earth, and bound meaning tied to?”
“So, am I in Terabound or not?” I asked.
“No. Ye are here.”
With a sigh of exasperation, I kicked at the leaves. “Would you mind telling me where here is?”
“We call this earth.”
“If this is Earth, then exactly where on Earth am I?”
“This is the forest of Avalon.” He said it as if I should know, like I was some kind of moron.
My heart sank. “Avalon, as in King Arthur’s Avalon?” I asked.
The guy just looked at me like he had no idea what I was talking about. “Arthur? We have no king by that name.”
“Of course not, he’s been dead for a long time. You were under the rule of Queen Elizabeth, except she up and died not too long ago and now they put in one of her sons. I can’t remember who.” This guy really needed to get out more.
He drew his eyebrows together. “Queen who?”
I chuckled. I guess there were people in England who lived as hermits as much here as in the United States.
“Who be this Queen Elizabeth?” he asked.
“She was the queen for over a hundred years.” Well, not quite, but pictures of her before she died, anyone would think that. “She lived in Buckingham Palace—”
“Buckingham?”
Wow, this guy really was clueless. “I guess it’s been a while since you’ve been out of the forest.”
He shook his head. “No, I oft to town to hear the minstrels and snatch up a swig of ale and hear the goin’s on.
“Minstrels? As in guys with guitar that sing about—” I stopped short. He hadn’t heard of King Arthur, Queen Elizabeth, or Buckingham palace. Nervous, I asked, “What year is this?”
“The reckoning of the year . . .” He wrinkled his brow and tapped the end of his bow. “I suppose it’s either the year of our Lord three hundred and forty-six—no forty-seven, because me brother showed up three springs ago, extolling his love for Vyana. I told him ‘twas a mistake.” He lifted his head and peered down his nose at me. “Are ye sure Vyana didn’t send ye?”
I leaned against the tree, afraid I’d pass out. 347 AD. It couldn’t be possible, could it? I’d translocated to Terabound once with Arietta’s dragon, but never through time. “I’ve gone back almost seventeen hundred years.” I slumped to the ground.
“That would explain that.” He pointed to my shirt. “And that.” He pointed to my pants. “And all the rest of ye.”
“I’ve got to figure out how to get back.” The last time I’d seen Arietta she’d been about to fight Fir’inis with the aid of a chicken fairy, and a couple of dragons, oh, and Morgan, one really moronic, video game addicted guy who was trying to move in on my girlfriend. I gulped. I mean, my friend. Arietta and I were just friends. But then hadn’t she said she loved me when I died the first time? But then sometimes people say really stupid things when they think someone is dying. How did I explain the kiss? I mean, she’d kiss me like…or maybe it was just because she missed me. No, she’d meant it when she laid her lips on mine.
I snapped back to the present…or past. Something about this whole thing puzzled me. Where and when was I? This guy, dressed like some kind of primitive woodsman, believed in fairies and dragons, didn’t flinch when I told him I was from the future. “So are there dragons and fairies and netherbeasts around?”
“Dragons and fairies, aye. Netherbeasts? I’m not sure what those be.”
A howl sent shivers up my spine.
The guy nodded in the direction the wolves had run off. “We best not stand here lest the pheasant invites them for dinner, or maybe you as their meal.” He motioned to the small animal hanging from his belt. “If ye are not from here, then ye have no place ye call home, have ye?” He turned and headed off in the direction he’d come.
I supposed that was an invitation to follow him. I sure didn’t want to stay in the forest with wolves on the hunt, especially since I wasn’t dead…yet.